Green light for SK Telecom’s contents business
Posted: December 10th, 2008, by Yunho ChungSK Telecom has strived to enter into the contents market by acquiring IHQ(movie production), CUmedia(formerly known as YTNstar, entertainment channel for cable broadcasting) and other small players. But there was no viable return from those efforts.
Yesterday, CUmedia and Korea’s No.3 cable MSO C&M decided to establish a joint company according to one of the established internet media.
Through this agreement, CUmedia secured stable path to distribute their contents through C&M’s network. Form C&M’s perspective, they can counterattack other MSOs who have been expanding their contents business portfoli aggressively. In fact, CJ and Tbroad owned powerful program prividers as subsidiaries and made continual acquisition of small PPs.
Korean IPTV, on the other hand, has been in a bottle-neck for contents supply due to the politics between cable MSOs and PPs. However, yesterday’s news about the joint company gives the clue that SK Telecom, the mother company of CU media and SK Broadband (No.2 IPTV Provider), could overcome their disadvantaged position in contents supply nogotiation.
And I hope this news could trigger the dynamic growth of the whole Pay TV market in Korea by providing fair environment for competition among all Pay TV players.
